Wendell Boyce

Wendell Hill Boyce died Thursday morning, February 10, 2011 at the Green Country Care Center in Tulsa after a 10 year battle with Alzheimer's disease. Mr. Boyce was born on June 24, 1950, in Cherokee, Oklahoma, son of Willard Boyce and Helen Genevieve Hill Boyce of Carmen, Oklahoma. When Willard died suddenly in 1953, Genevieve moved to Bartlesville to be close to her sisters Amy Thomas and RuthAnn Moberly. Wendell attended Bartlesville schools graduating from College High in 1968 where he participated in band and played lead guitar and trumpet in the rock band The Dark Side. He attended the University of Oklahoma where he was a member of The Pride Marching Band, Delta Upsilon fraternity, served as representative in student government and as president of the model United Nations. He was awarded OU's Top Ten Senior Men upon graduation in 1972 with a BA degree in history. He received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University Of Oklahoma College Of Law in 1975 and clerked for the Honorable Hez Bussey at the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. It was during this time he met and married Peggy Daly Boyce on July 5, 1975, before enlisting in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the United States Army. He attended JAG school at Charlottesville, Virginia before being assigned as a prosecutor for the Third Corps Army Division at Fort Hood Texas in a 1976. He had the distinction of never losing a case during the three years of prosecuting for the Army. He was honorably discharged in 1978, and went to work for the Washington County District Attorney's office as first assistant district attorney. He left the district attorney's office in 1981 to join Allan Stocker and Dan Bassett forming the law firm of Bassett, Stocker, and Boyce. He practiced law until 2002 when he closed his practice due to the early onset of Alzheimer's disease. He served our country as a JAG officer for the US Army Reserves for 27 years, retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel. He participated in Desert Shield in 1990. Boyce attended the Community of St. James, held offices in many civic organizations including Commander of the American Legion, president Of the Washington County Bar Association, President of Downtown Kiwanis, President of Big Brother and Big Sisters Board, served on the board of the Green Country Free Clinic, and volunteered for Mary Martha Outreach. He coached both soccer and YMCA flag football teams and attended all his sons sporting events and activities. He was proud father to John Wilford Hill Boyce, Edward Andrew Boyce, Ryan Patrick Boyce, and Kevin Allan Lincoln Boyce. Wendell enjoyed playing the guitar and singing with Peggy and fostered the love of music in his children. He will be remembered for his quick wit, dry sense of humor, love of country and for how he treated people as equals. He is survived by his wife, Peggy of Bartlesville; sons: Wil Boyce of Tulsa ; Ryan Boyce and his wife Rachel of Tulsa; Andrew Boyce of Arvada, Colorado; Kevin of Norman, and many cousins and friends. He is truly missed. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. John Catholic Church in Bartlesville at 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, February 12, 2011. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: Daybreak at Eldercare,1223 Swan Drive, Bartlesville, Oklahoma 74006 or to the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research-c/o Michael Camilleri,MD, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW,-Rochester, Minnesota 55905. Funeral Services are under the direction of the Neekamp-Luginbuel Funeral Home. Online condolences may be left at www.honoringmemories.com

Service Details

Saturday, February 12th, 2011 10:00am, St. John Before The Latin Gate

Interment Details

Calvary Cemetery